Tensions
by Sir Stone
Summary: The first of several chapters centering around three different points of view. Roy Anderson, Jim/Pam, and Karen/OC.
1. Relapse

A/N: This is my first fanfic, I plan to add a lot of chapters and a lot of different viewpoints on characters, so this is just a taste of what I am hopefully going to create. Also, I don't own the Office, so don't sue me.

Disclaimer: If you're a fan of Roy Anderson, you probably won't be interested in following this story.

"**I am going to kill Jim Halpert."**

They were just words. Palpable, with real meaning cemented in their construction, those words were uttered from the mouth of Roy Anderson on that night not but a year prior. The actions which followed the simple utterance were now faintly on the minds of the staff at Dunder-Mifflin. That which had transpired was tucked away in their collective memories. While harrowing; those involved had moved on to better things, or at least those who still worked the struggling paper company. Little was known of Roy Anderson, and what became of him after his last meeting with Pam.

Most could remember what had happened the first time Pam had ended their relationship. The steady, drunken spiral out of control until, he quite literally hit rock bottom, after receiving his first DUI. His mug-shot explained everything. Wild, feral eyes coupled with a mess of unkempt hair. Roy was the epitome of a walking disaster. But, he had managed to pull himself from that dark place. He had been determined to regain Pam's affection, to restore status quo prior the wedding. Yet, he slipped into familiar patterns, and it was all too familiar that the words were said while he was under the influence of alcohol, even after the fact he had completely obliterated shot glasses and bar stools with his brother Kenny inside Poor Richards. Despite what he claimed and spoke of later, that he would never have acted on it and his apologizing to Jim, a question is raised. How easy is it to slip into your old ways? How long would it be until Roy returned to that dark place?

He had slipped back into his past behaviors as quickly as he had emerged from them. He spent the first few days at home, with little comfort besides the bottle. Kenny would stop in from time to time, to offer the brotherly assistance he felt obligated to. This was one of those days.

His door creaked open, it shown signs of wear, much like the owner of the apartment. His brother, Kenny emerged through carrying a newspaper. It was tossed onto the shoddy coffee table in front of Roy. His apartment was rather run down, a man's touch if you will. There was a pile of dirty dishes, noticeable crumbs, and a general mess prevalent. Roy's priorities did not involve cleaning up after himself, or keeping his apartment clean. He was the poster boy for the man who felt he lost everything.

"Central Sales is hiring, you should check into it." Kenny referred to Central Sales Warehouse Corporation, located in Scranton. It was modest, the job description much like what he had done at Dunder-Mifflin. The pay was a bit less, and the perks were a spot shoddy, but it was a job. The ad itself was circled in highlighter, which garnered the attention of Roy's glance, at least for a moment.

"Yeah, I guess. I'll get around to it." Roy's voice was riddled with despair; he was still milling over all he had done in the past year. He had jumped from job to job, but settled in with unemployment checks as of late. He scraped together enough to pay rent and buy food, but he always had the spare funds to get a twelve pack.

"I'm serious Roy." Kenny's tone had firmed up a bit. There was compassion in his brother's eyes, but Roy did not, would not notice. He leaned back, while his arm rose to drain the remaining drops of the beer that he was drinking.

"I know man, don't worry about it. I'll look into it." These were half-truths at best. He didn't want his brother to look after him, and he probably would look at the advertisement. But, Roy probably wouldn't try to call, not now.

"If you need anything, just, give me a call man." His brother was slightly gruff about it, but he had been watching Roy's self-destructive behaviors for awhile now, and he was fed up. The thump of the closed door alerted Roy he was alone again. He rose to his feet, shuffling over to the refrigerator, removing another beer, he then settled back down onto his couch.

His thoughts shifted that night. How had he fallen into this, again? He picked his brain for answers, but it was difficult for him to admit that he had been at fault for this entire circumstance. The extremeness of his thoughts increased with each bottle he knocked back. His hand drifted up to his forehead, rubbing his temples slightly. A scapegoat, that was all he wanted, no needed. He pondered for hours, mumbling bittersweet memories of the way things used to be. Suddenly, he had an epiphany, an answer to his all his troubles. His arm flashed out across the coffee table, clearing it of the ten plus empty bottles which had been placed there. They crashed onto the ground, some of them snapping at the neck spreading bits of glass along the crusty tiles of his kitchen floor. He was not concerned with the clean up though. Thoughts raced in his brain, images flashing. Roy began to remember all of those times he would make his appearance at the reception desk, only to notice Jim scurrying away. He had always dismissed it, he thought he was gay. Then the mentioning of Jim's crush on Pam came out, and still he was not particularly disturbed by it. It wasn't until she had mentioned the kiss, and then he thought back to the diner. He had asked her if she would pursue Halpert, and she had said no. He had always found that odd. Perhaps, she had hid something from him their entire time at Dunder-Mifflin. His brain was heavily influenced by the alcohol, his thoughts barely coherent. She could have been cheating on him the entire time for all he knew. Roy's fists tightened, as he slammed them down on the table. His eyes lit up, burning with intensity, as he muttered the following words.

"**I am going to kill Jim Halpert."**

Roy Anderson, had relapsed, and it was far worse than anyone could have predicted.


	2. Competition

A/N: This is first the Pam/Jim perspective. Feel free to review.

"Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam…I'll put you through to him." She delicately sat the phone receiver down before pressing another button on the set.

"Micheal, it's Jan." She leaned over the edge of the reception desk a bit, tilting her head so Micheal could see her.

"Uhhh..." He stuttered a bit, before heading into his office closing the door behind him. The typical shouting match ensued, with Michael yelling into the phone at Jan, but he quieted down eventually. This prompted Jim to rise from his desk, moving over towards reception. He leaned over as usual, offering a smirk.

"Hey, sounds like Michael and Jan are getting along again." His words were drenched in sarcasm. The word 'foliage' could be heard from the Michael's office. This brought the soft sound of Pam's giggling, as well as a chuckle from Jim.

"Maybe her candle business finally took off, and she's calling to tell him about the brand new plasma TV she bought to replace the old one…" She of course referred to the disastrous dinner party that they had attending a few weeks prior. Before Jim could respond in kind, the door to the main office flung open, and there stood Dwight. His left arm was raised, and he clutched a dead raccoon by the tail. The scent of the creature was less than intoxicating.

"For those of you who have complained of a feral animal prowling about the parking lot, I, Dwight K. Schrute, am happy to report that the vermin has been neutralized." He had a look upon his face which was heavy with pride, as if he had just saved a child's life. The disgusted look of the rest of the Dunder-Miffflin staff said otherwise.

"If you don't get that thing out of here, I'm getting out of here." Stanley moved to grab his crossword, and half stood out of his seat to leave. He wasn't one to tolerate these kinds of antics from Dwight.

"Now, just calm down. I'll dispose of it, I just wanted to provide the physical evidence that the deed is done." Dwight would probably use every part of the raccoon, which was the Schrute way.

"Really Dwight, just take it out of here please." Pam had crinkled her nose, and pulled the side of her cardigan over the lower portion of her face. Jim had done the same with his hand. Michael burst from his office, before covering his own face.

"Dwight, what are you doing?! Get that out of here, jeez!" Dwight fled from the office with the raccoon carcass, and it then appeared as if Michael was to address the office.

"That aside, I just got a call from Ryan. Corporate's trying to get us to increase sales soooo…" He paused for a moment, a weak attempt to build anticipation. He failed to mention the prior phone call from Jan as well.

"There's going to be a competition between the branches, to see who can increase their sales the most, relevant to their size…or something." He wasn't quite sure what that had meant, but he was all for sticking it to the other branches, especially Utica for trying to steal Stanley. Before he could continue, Dwight returned and caught the tail end of his announcement.

"YES! Sales competition, alright everyone be on your toes, let's go!" He ran over to his desk and was prepared to start making phone calls.

"Good attitude Dwight. Hey Jim, you can try to talk Pam out of her clothes later, we have work to do." Michael's eyes lit up, he was quite pleased with this turn of events. Mandates from corporate were never this fun, at least to him. Upon hearing his comments, Pam's head canted downwards and Jim just stared blankly at him before sitting back down at his desk. Luckily for the staff, Angela still had Andy's air horn. He had most likely considered blowing it every time someone made a sale, but alas, that was not possible. The day was going along very slowly. Michael was overseeing the entire operation, and was not allowing any slacking. This of course, cut down on the time in which Jim and Pam could speak to one another, as well as play the typical prank on Dwight. Dwight on the other hand, was in paradise. He was flying through contacts, calling twice as many people as anyone else.

Jim sighed heavily, before look around for Michael. He was off on the other side of the office, giving inspiration to Stanley. How well-received it was, well, that was a different story. He pulled up the instant messenger service and sent out a quick note to Pam.

_Meet me on the roof for lunch, this day has been awful_.

He shot a quick glance her way, and she returned his with a smile and nod. All of this work was killing him. He just wanted to spend some time with her. The doldrums of the office were intensified without being able to talk to her, just for a few minutes. He fell into the habit of constantly checking his watch, the minutes ticking by slowly, mocking him. Jim glanced over at Dwight, who had actually worked up a slight sweat, the beads of it prevalent of his brow. He just shook his head, and did the minimal amount of work that Michael would accept. Before long, lunch finally hit. He made his way to the roof with his lunch, a ham and cheese sandwich naturally. Pam would soon follow. The office didn't seem to notice or care that they had left, figuring they were going out for lunch. As soon as she had emerged and established stable footing on the roof, Jim moved to her. His hands wrapped around her waist, his lips descending upon hers. It was a rare show of emotion from Jim at work, but he felt like he was imprisoned for the last few hours. She broke the kiss, and beamed a smile at him.

"Feeling a little desperate are we, Halpert?"

"You have no idea." He leaned in again, their lips crashing against one another's. Jim figured he could scarf down his lunch quick enough, but this was proving to be the only time he'd get to hold Pam until he got off of work. His hands wandered a bit, slipping under her blouse to tickle her bare stomach a bit.

"I guess that's a lot desperate." She said breaking the make out session again, giggling. Pam laughed again, and Jim fought the blush that crept to his cheeks.

"Let's, have lunch, if that's ok with your hands, Halpert." She moved past him to the pair of chairs that were set up. Before long, they had settled down, or at least Jim had. He then began to discuss his day, how bad it was going. Dwight's fevered pace, and the occasional shots of joy from Andy at each sale.

"You know Beesley; the worst part of it was not being able to see you." A sweet, yet true statement. She smiled again, and the rest of their lunch was quite pleasant. Back down in the office was an entirely different story.

"We need an edge, some sort of advantage, think think think." Michael paced back and forth, wracking his brain for an answer, and then it came to him.

"Dwight, I need two disguises and you now." Dwight looked up with a jovial smile upon his face.

"We're going to go sabotage our main competitor." Michael was smiling now too upon saying that, nodding his head. Dwight leapt up from his seat and grabbed his coat.

"Where are heading?" Dwight was up for anything.

"Utica." Michael grabbed his own jacket and they left the office quickly, only leaving a befuddled Jim to wander back into the office with Pam.

"Where are Michael and Dwight going?" He asked quizzically, figuring they couldn't be up to anything positive.

"Out to see the last girl you boinked Big Tuna! Err…last girlfriend." Andy had shouted it, perhaps forgetting that Pam was in the room.

"They're going to Utica…again." Jim let those words out with a sigh, he had a strange feeling he'd be getting a call from his ex concerning two men from Scranton failing in some sort of prank. He shrugged his shoulders, as least with both of them gone the office could return to the relaxed atmosphere it usually had.

"This is gonna be awesoooome!!" Michael screamed out of the window of Dwight's Trans-Am. Both of them were dressed in brown jumpsuits, and sporting fake mustaches with hats as well. Whatever they were planning, it was probably going to be a disaster.


End file.
